Paul E Nelson presenting at Cascadia Poetry Festival 8, photo by Leszek Chudzinski
“Paul formally received the Mahayana precepts of Zen Buddhism in 2023, becoming a lay practitioner within the tradition, but I believe he had long lived in accord with them. His poetry, in its sensitivity, its humility, and its deep listening, embodies practice-realization — the understanding that practice and awakening are not separate. His writing was his zazen. This collection, FLEXIBLE MIND, is more than a book. It is a continuation of that practice. A testament to a man who lives by attention, who bows to language but does not cling to it, who seeks what lays beyond words by walking straight into them.”– Kosho Itagaki, Soto Zen Priest
G.P. Lainsbury’s Cascadia Transit
Greg (GP) Lainsbury, Professor in the English department at Northern Lights College, Fort St. John, BC is another of the poets with work published in Make It True: Poetry From Cascadia. On July 29,...
After the Japanese 87-90 (Mountains, Mingus & Madrones)
Taking the ferry in the Salish Sea, being on any kind of boat in the waters of Cascadia gives you quite a different perspective and an April 2014 ferry ride provided a perspective that inspired the...
5 Step Plan for Seattle Progressives
Yes the 8.8.15 interrupt Bernie stunt "Blew up the Internet." Of course that does not make it good, that means someone got their picture in the paper and in news stories for a cycle or two. Never...
506. Curved Projections
The second poem from the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest, this one is really the first, since #505 was a dry run and #506 starts the poems that all lead off with a quote from Joanne Kyger. And I am...
Whalen, Zen and Postcards
Thanks to Sam Hamill's suggestion, I have been reading Crowded by Beauty a biography of Beat Poet and Zen Monk Philip Whalen by David Schneider. Am loving it and finding it a great companion and...
Zen, BLM Shuts Down Bernie
I was at the Bernie Sanders rally yesterday (8.8.15) in downtown Seattle's Westlake Center where he was interrupted a second time by protestors from #BlackLivesMatter. And I get why it is...
After The Japanese 83-86
"The poem beats you down the street*" when the poem is written as an act of discovery. It's part of the joy of an open form. The prophecy in this batch of poems from the series I've been posting for...
Barry McKinnon Interview
To start a poetry culture in a town that had none before your arrival and to have that community continue while you have nothing to do with it, sounds a lot like MY story. There was a short-lived...
Postcard Feedback
I know what you are thinking. Don't put any more energy into things like this, but my strong sense of justice is begging me to respond. So, after changing another dirty diaper from my 3 year old and...
Susan McCaslin on Robin Blaser
Susan McCaslin has a wonderful piece that was posted yesterday to the Cascadia Poetry Fest blog: Trailblazing with Blaser by Susan McCaslin (pdf) From the moment I heard Robin Blaser lecture in my...
David Stephen Calonne: Diane di Prima Visionary Poetics & The Hidden Religions
Interview with David Stephen Calonne, author of Diane di Prima: Visionary Poetics and the Hidden Traditions, Recorded via Zoom, Sunday, June 6, 2021, 1:30pm Diane di Prima, who died in October 2020:...
Poetry Postcards Black Mountain Style
I was delighted to team up with postcard poet (with a new book!) Margaret Lee for an essay that has been published on the website of the Journal for Black Mountain College Studies. Postcard poets...
Michael Boughn on Jack Clarke
Michael Boughn is a brilliant poet who edited Robert Duncan's mythical H.D. Book, studied with Robin Blaser and co-edited the dangerous website Dispatches from the Poetry Wars, now archived via...
The interview I conducted with Sam O’Hana, a Ph.D. student at CUNY, is immensely critical and immensely validating for the work we do at the Cascadia Poetics Lab. At its core, the discussion is about whether writing is for people of means, or if it can be people who have skill and something to say. It means the literary gatekeepers have failed us and have a role in perpetuating neoliberalism in North America which has paved the way for authoritarianism. The interview is available as a podcast here and as a YouTube video here. Below, I have pasted in the transcript and here is my introduction to Sam O’Hana and his topic.